1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to bath sponges and, more specifically, methods for manufacturing bath ruffles or sponges.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the manufacture of low cost items such as bath ruffles or sponges by unskilled manual labor, it is essential that assembly procedures be standardized and simplified to the extent that labor content is minimized while maintaining complete consistency of product to meet the demands of marketers and retailers.
Typically, imported bath ruffles or sponges are made from extruded polyethylene diamond mesh netting of the type used for fruit or vegetable bags. These bath ruffles or sponges are characterized by a generally misshapen appearance and a prematurely short service life due to unravelling of the ruffle or sponge material from a knotted binding cord.
Consumer demands have lead to the requirement for bath sponges or ruffles to be made in a wide variety of colors and the incorporation of a pigment or dye to the base polymer adds suPit antially to the retail cost of the item.
Moreover, as these bath ruffles or sponges come into intimate contact with tender skin regions of a bather, it is generally not possible to utilize regrind waste polymer due to the risk of contamination which might otherwise manifest itself as sharp lumps or protrusions on the extruded net filaments which could scratch tender skin tissues leading to skin infections.
Even with frequent extruder screen changes to capture particulate contamination, it is extremely difficult to maintain color consistency due to the variations in color in the regrind feedstock without the use of excessive dark pigment to mask the feedstock color variations.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,034,443 is concerned with a knot-tying device in the form of a triangular plate having a small aperture adjacent an apex of the plate and a larger aperture in the center of the plate. A free end of a line or cord is passed through the smaller aperture and knotted on one side of the plate to secure the line or cord thereto. The line or cord is then looped around an object to be secured and a further looped portion of line or cord is pushed through the larger central aperture and looped over the two corners of the plate opposite the apex. Tension on the loop secured around the object secures the knot and the divergent sides of the plate prevent accidental disengagement of the looped portion of line or cord from the plate.
The main application described for this device is to secure a small boat to a mooring post with a tensioned loop.
Another prior art knot tying device is described U.S. Pat. No. 4,112,551 relating to a draw strings puller and fastener for shoes or bags. The draw strings puller and fastener comprises a hollow frusto conical body with the free ends of a loop extending through opposed apertures in the side wall of the hollow body and emerging from a divergent open end thereof. The free ends of the loop are secured in a tapered plug which is inserted into the open end of the body when the loop is tensioned to wedgingly engage the drawstring between the tapered plug and body walls.
Other securing devices for cords or ribbons are described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,585,781, U.S. Pat. No. 2,849,821, U.S. Pat. No. 3,922,407 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,585,676.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,295,280 describes a body scrubber in the form of an elongate body in the nature of chain formed from a plurality of inter-looped links with a loop-like gripping handle at each end. The body portion is comprised of a polymeric netting in a tubular form, typically of Nylon (Trade Mark) or polyethylene.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,144,744 describes a bath ruffle or sponge made from extruded diamond mesh polyethylene of the type used to make fruit and vegetable bags. In this patent, the bath ruffle or sponge is made by stretching a number of netting tubes over respective pairs of spaced upright supports, binding the plurality of tubes together intermediate their ends with a plastic tie strip and then releasing the ends of the tubes from respective supports whereby due to the resiliency of the net material, the tubes rebound to form a sponge shape around the central binding.
Although such prior art bath ruffles or sponges are generally effective for their intended purpose, they do suffer from a number of practical disadvantages.
The use of a plastic tie strip is labor intensive and cannot be secured tightly enough to prevent premature unravelling of the bath ruffle or sponge. To overcome this problem a braided cord of cotton or the like was knotted around the netting tubes but again this was a very labor intensive exercise and was difficult to knot tightly enough to prevent premature unravelling.
Sponges of this type have not found favor due to a misshapen "dog-bone" appearance and a relatively coarse texture which can irritate sensitive skin tissue.
Accordingly, there is a need for a cost-effective manufacturing process for bath ruffles or spotiges from extruded polymeric netting wherein the end product has an aesthetically pleasing appearance, is securely fastened and otherwise which can be adapted to a variety of appearances and functionalities.
The present invention seeks to overcome or ameliorate at least some of the disadvantages associated with prior art bath ruffles or sponges and to provide a greater variety of products.